Morgan Werner Photography - Sacramento Senior Photographer

Ashley S., Class of 2011 || Casa Roble Orangevale Senior Photographer

2011-06-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

Words cannot express how much I loved shooting with this girl. This was my last shoot while I was living in Monterey. I did her Senior Ball Pictures last month, and her mom liked them so much that she called me for a semi-impromptu senior portrait session, and they came all the way from Orangevale out to Monterey for a freakin' amazing shoot!

Ashley and her mom were just so much fun. They are the kind of people that I feel like I could totally hang out with any time and have fun with. We went all over the place on this portrait session. We started in downtown Carmel, where we found some fabulous shopping and gorgeous flowers. We sat down at a cute little cafe and had sandwiches and pastries for lunch. We watched some old guys play chess and talked about Ashley's senior project (hot yoga! Yowza!). Some European women pointed and laughed at me as I rolled around on the ground to get different angles with my camera. If they thought I looked funny now, they should have seen me doing the same thing when I was six months pregnant!

Then we headed down to Garapatta State Park for these beautiful, rural shots that we got of her in her prom dress. She was such a good sport when I was making her walk through all the pokey thistles in sandals to get to just the right patch of tall grass and weeds.

And here comes my favorite part of the whole dang shoot. That's right, folks. She wore her prom dress IN THE OCEAN! Now THAT is how you get your money's worth out of your $300 prom dress.

Ooooooooh, I shall miss Monterey!

Morgan Werner Photography is BACK in SACRAMENTO! || Sacramento Senior Photographer

2011-06-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

I am SO happy to be back in Sacramento! This wasn't something we were planning, but my husband, Brett, had a fantastic job opportunity that he just couldn't pass up, so we're back! We'll miss our friends and the beach in Monterey, but it feels so good, so right, to be back here in Sacramento. The funny thing was that while we were living in Monterey, I only had a small handful of local clients. Most of what you see on my blog, website, and Facebook is from my Sacramento network of clients. I tried so hard in Monterey, but I just couldn't generate business there if my life depended on it. But here, in the City of Trees (you have no idea how much I got tired of Monterey pines and cypress trees), I have all my family and long-time friends. I have unlimited networking opportunities here so I'm planning to make my business go big this year.

I have so many ideas that I want to try here and I am ready to dive into the high school community head first! I'm SOOOO excited to go to practically ALL my brothers' football games! I've got a brother on JV at Casa Roble and a brother at American River College. Football season shall be rich this year! I'm going to get Bobo a shirt or onesie with each of my brothers' jersey numbers on them. He's gonna be so cute!

I have so much marketing and planning to do. I have my 2012 Senior Spokesmodels for Casa Roble already (even though they don't know yet... hehe... I guess I should email them, huh? Life gets crazy when you decide to move in a week), but now I will be actively looking for Senior Spokesmodels at all the schools in the area: Folsom High School, Granite Bay High School, Bella Vista High School, Rocklin High School, Oakmont High School, Foothills High School, Oak Ridge High School, Vista Del Lago High School, Woodcreek High School, Del Campo High School, Del Oro High School, Rio Americano High School, and El Camino High School. Did I forget anyone? Well if I did, I want Spokesmodels at those schools too! Ok ok ok... I'll stop plugging my 2012 Senior Spokesmodel program... hehe...

Tomorrow, I get to show you Ashley...

© Morgan Werner Photography

Please no right clicky!

Coming to Casa Roble's Senior Ball! || Orangevale, Folsom Senior Photographer

2011-05-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

PROM 2011

THIS SATURDAY!

I decided kinda last minute to make a quick trip up to Sacramento for Casa Roble High School's Senior Ball since my big/little brother, Houston, is going with a totally darling date. I can't miss that! This is going to be so fun.

After doing this last year with nine couples, I've simplified the process and ironed out the kinks. This year there will be no appointment necessary - we'll take your pictures on a first come, first serve basis. Just come when you're ready for pictures and we'll take you as you arrive! Here are all the particulars:

$50 per couple

5 poses on a disc

(you can print them anywhere you want)

And that's it!

No confusion, no decisions to make, no fluff.

And you'll have the best prom pictures in the whole school.

We'll be meeting in Old Folsom, starting at 4 pm, the exact location to be announced. I'm going to find the location on Saturday morning after I get to the area. I'll be looking for somewhere with lots of texture and nice light, and minimal crowds. Once I figure out exactly where we'll be, I'll send out a text message to a few of the people who's phone numbers I have and they'll spread it around. If you aren't part of Houston or Katie's group, send me an email (morgan@morganwerner.com) or message me on Facebook to let me know you're coming so that I can make sure you know where we're meeting.

Aaaaaaaanyway, I'll see you on Saturday afternoon!

How to get free senior portraits! | Monterey Carmel Sacramento Senior Photographer

2011-05-07T00:44:00.000-07:00

Are you...

sassy

bold

adventurous

trendy

trend-setting

outgoing

witty

confident

graduating in 2012

We’re looking for our 2012 Senior Spokesmodels!

These are the perks:

A FREE senior portrait session
Rep cards to pass out to your friends to direct them to your own mini-website to showcase all your fabulous photos
Free Facebook images
$75 credit to get you started on your print order

How it works:

Use Facebook, your mini-website, and your rep cards to tell your friends all about Morgan Werner Photography so that they can have senior portraits as awesome as yours! The catch is that at least three of your friends must book their senior portraits with us by October, 2011, or the $200 session fee will be due. BUT – for every friend of yours who books with me, I’ll give you $20!

We'd like to find at least two spokesmodels in the Monterey Bay area and two in the Sacramento area. We will be accepting applications until June 30.

Click HERE to apply...

Alyssa | Lincoln, Monterey, Carmel Senior Photographer

2011-05-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Alyssa is a friend of my brother's, and I was tickled to death when she asked me to help her update her modeling portfolio. She was such a sweetheart. We had so much fun exploring old Lincoln and making friends with some bikers! Hopefully we'll get some Alyssa sightings in commercials soon!

I'm baaaaack!

2011-02-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

I'm back from maternity leave (but still at the mercy of Bobo) and better than ever! I'm ready to shoot, and my calendar for this spring is pretty open still. Contact me soon for your senior portraits, engagement session, or wedding day!

Posts without pictures are dumb. Here's a cute one of Bobo for your viewing pleasure, compliments of Susanne Ashby Photography. (I know, I know, he's the cutest baby you've ever seen. Tell me something I don't hear every day. ;-P )

Lauren || Monterey Senior Photographer

2010-12-21T19:23:00.000-08:00

I freakin LOVE this chick! She has such a perfect mix of sass and class. Lauren is one of my favorite girls at church (I have about 20 favorite girls, since I used to be a leader in our Young Women group), so I was THRILLED when she asked me to do her senior portraits!

We started out with an edgy, grungy warehouse in Fort Ord in Marina.

Then, we headed to Carmel-by-the-Sea for these gorgeous villiage shots. Carmel is such a fun place to shoot in because every time I go there, I find another awesome nook or cranny for taking pictures. I've lived here in the Monterey Bay for over two years now, and can you believe that I JUST recently discovered the Anthropologie store right in Carmel Plaza? Think of all the shopping I could have been doing over the past couple years! (My husband, Brett, is probably wishing I still didn't know about that store... it's not exactly a bargain store...) Trouble, I'm tellin' ya.

To finish off the session, we went to Carmel Highlands for this awesome, rural spot. I love old stuff. I love texture and overgrowth. And check out the sky we scored with! I rarely get awesome skies on my shooting days, so this sky with the awesome clouds was so fun to give my polarizing filter a little exercise on. And then, the wind started blowing, bringing out Lauren's supermodel persona.

Gawgeous, darling! Good luck with the rest of your senior year! Love ya!

Monterey Senior Photographer || What's new with me...

2010-12-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

You might have noticed that I've been a little absent from the blog over the last few months... Well, here's why:

Click on the picture to go to Susanne Ashby Photography's website! She's the mastermind behind these amazing photos, and boy oh boy did she do a great job! I seriously almost cried when I saw them for the first time.

That's me, and that ain't no basketball under my dress! We couldn't be happier, and I can't wait to show you tons of pictures of him! He's got hiccups as I type. It's the second time he's had them today ;-). I've been super busy getting ready for this little guy to make his grand entrance by the first week of January, and when I'm not doing that, I'm laying around feeling totally gross. It turns out that growing a human is hard work. And so, I haven't done a whole lot with my blog lately.

But, I have done a TON with my website! Have you seen it? I totally re-vamped it, using Showit. If you are a photographer, this is the BEST way to build a website! The cool thing about Showit Sites is that you can pretty much do whatever with your site, whenever you want. You're not stuck with the limitations of a template. It's just so easy to create the site that I feel best portrays what my photography and brand are all about.

Here's my homepage:

Go ahead - click on anything! All the buttons work right from this blog post! Or, you can open it in a fresh browser window by going to http://www.morganwerner.com/. Over the next few weeks I'll be adding more and more pictures and pages to the site, and I don't plan on it looking the same for very long.

The Kid should be here any day now, and I am hereby on maternity leave until the end of January or sometime in February, depending on when the blessed event actually takes place. During my leave, I'll still be checking my email every so often, so if you want to schedule a shoot for this spring or have any other questions, go ahead and write! I'll get back to you between the feedings and diaper changes when I can. Right now, I'm scheduling for this spring, and in a few short months I'll be looking for my 2012 Senior Models.

Here comes some more big news for me, business-wise: Starting as soon as I get back from maternity leave, I will no longer be doing family, child, or baby photography. I want to focus and specialize on the work that I really love - senior photography and weddings, with some fun fashion shoots here and there. Now, this isn't to say that I'll never do a family session ever again, and if you are really just DYING for me to take your family pictures, it'll all depend on what my senior and wedding schedule is looking like - and how cute your kids are. Totally kidding. Maybe. Over the last couple of years, I've learned that families, kids, and babies just aren't my forte. Kinda ironic that I come to this conclusion as I'm about to have my own baby, right? I know. I'm crazy. Deal with it. :-P

I've got a few fabulous photographers with their own, individual styles in both the Monterey Bay area and the Sacramento area for you to check out, if you need family, child, or baby photography.

For Monterey Bay, check out:

http://www.terryway.com/

http://www.mypureimages.com/

http://www.akrowlandphotography.com/

http://www.sambaileyphotography.com/

(Sam's Bailey's website is under construction right now, but you can email him at sam@samsgallery.com)

For Sacramento, check out:

http://www.susanneashby.com/

http://www.katieelmerphotography.blogspot.com/

http://www.frenchphotography.blogspot.com/

http://www.brianmealeyphotography.com/

Well, that's all for now! Stay tuned for pictures of The Kid - hopefully this month! Tchau!

To all my hometown Sacramentans

2010-10-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'll be in the Sacramento area until Tuesday and after that I won't be back for a month. I still have a couple openings for portraits tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday! 2011 Seniors: you still have time to get your senior portraits done. Contact me soon to snag one of those sessions for yourself... Morgan@morganwerner.com

Sacramento Senior Photographer || Homecoming 2010 {Part I}

2010-10-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I owe you a big, long post explaining what I've been up to for the past six months, but I just did the most fun shoot this weekend that I wanted to show you. My mom asked me to come up and take pictures of my brothers before they went to Homecoming. Long story short, I ended up only getting pictures of Peyton and his friends. We had a blast standing in the middle of the street taking pictures of them in their fancy-schmancy outfits! We were laughing the whole time. Only three more years until I can do senior portraits for these jokers - and I can't wait! Next weekend will be fun too because I'll get to take pictures of my, Sarah, for Homecoming at another school! Stay tuned for that shoot!

This is Peyton. He's my babiest brother and he's a football stud. I can't believe that he's in high school now. Here he is posing like the manequins at The Men's Warehouse.

This is Austin, aka: Austiniak, Austonian, or anything else we come up with on a moment's notice. He is our cousin, and we love him!

This is Ashley. She has known Peyton and Austin since kindergarten, and she was Austin's date for the dance. When she was little, I always thought she was so sweet and adorable. Now that she's grown up, she is just stunningly pretty!

Pathetic.

2010-10-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

Heeeeeeeeeeellllllloooooooooooo out there! Does anyone even still read this thing? Let's see if I can breathe a little life back into my blog...

I know, I know, I know. I've been bad. I've been slacking majorly. I haven't blogged anything in a good seven months or so. It's pathetic. But it hasn't been without good reason, I promise! What is that reason? Weeeeeeeell, I'm not ready to say anything about it quite yet. Let's just say I've been working on a, *ahem,* personal project for the past few months...

But, in between my fun little spring/summer adventures, I did manage to take some pictures, so I have much to show you!

I did some AWESOME senior portraits, I did pictures for a Senior Ball, I turned 25 (blegh. I no like.) and I shot a couple gorgeous weddings with some of my favorite colleagues! And I've been developing a new passion that's getting pretty far up there with photography - knitting! (I know, I'm a nerd.) I'll try to take some pictures of my knitting projects.

I'm also working on making over my blog and my website, so you will notice a few changes on this blog. As of right now, not all of my menu buttons work yet, but I'm working on getting all set up in the next week or two.

Until next time!
xoxo,

Another AWESOME contest!

2010-03-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I'm not cool enough to be the one running this contest. I'm only lucky enough to enter it. Which I have. Epiphanie Bags is giving away a brand new Canon 5D Mark II! And check out the DARLING camera bags they make! How have I not discovered them before?? Methinks that if I win the camera, I shall treat myself to one of their bags to carry it in. My camera bag is black and ugly. Blegh. I need a camera bag that looks like a purse!

Please, everybody, send me the good vibes. Imagine the awesome pictures I could take with this full-frame sensor camera! Imagine the awesome pictures I could take of YOU with this camera... huh? huh? Yeah, that's right. You know you want me to have this camera. Now, please, get on with the vibe sending. Thanks.

Love, M

{Drumroll please...................................}

2010-02-28T22:29:00.000-08:00

{Ansally and Andrew}

You win!

You are my gorgeous, absolutely PERFECT couple!

I cannot wait to take your pictures - lots of pictures. Mwahahaha!

I'll be emailing you shortly to talk to you personally about all the details.

Seriously, I'm so excited. I'm not even lying. Wanna do your engagement pictures like tomorrow? :-)

Monterey Bay Wedding Photographer | Free wedding coverage! - The Perfect Couple

2010-01-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

I'm looking for The. Perfect. Couple.
Are you engaged?

Are you trendy?

Do you just LOVE love LOVE being in front of the camera?

Do your friends constantly complain about your overabundance of P.D.A. with your honey?

Do you want your wedding photography for FREE???

To kick off the 2010 wedding season, I want to try out some really fun, funky, fresh ideas for wedding, bridal, and engagement pictures. I have some great locations in mind (think the beach, fairytale-like buildings; romance, romance, romance!) But, I need just the perfect couple (or two) for the job.

This is what you would get (for FREE!) if you are my couple:
-An amazingly unique engagement session
-Coverage of your wedding and reception
-A separate, on-location shoot anywhere between the Central Coast and Greater Sacramento area, on a day other than and preferrably before the wedding day
-Professional makeup artistry by Maddybird Makeup and professional hair styling by Lovely Sparrow Hair Co. for the wedding day, engagements, and the off-site shoot
-$100 print credit and a disc of 50 your pictures, as well as discounts for any other prints, mounts, and albums
This is a value of $2500 for all of these services!

So, you say, what’s the catch? Well, not much!
-You must be willing to let me have complete creative freedom and be willing to use some pretty unique posing, locations, etc. (Don’t worry, I don’t have anything bizarre in mind, just some edgy, unconventional ideas. This is not your traditional hug-and-look-at-the-camera stuff.)
-You must live in Northern California and be willing to travel to Sacramento and/or the Central coast.
-Your wedding date must be this spring, May at the latest.
-You must sign a model release form.

To win this offer, write me a paragraph or more about you and your fiancé. I want to hear how you met, what kind of dates you went on, any embarrassing moments you survived together, and your plans for a unique wedding. Include with your story a picture or two of you two together. I will be assisted in my choice by Maddybird Makeup and Lovely Sparrow Hair Co. If you know of any cute engaged couples, please pass this on to them! I’m hoping to select my couple by March, so please send your story and picture to morgan.r.werner@gmail.com, by March 1st, 2010.

If you are not selected as my couple, don’t worry, I won’t leave you in the dust! You will get a 20% discount off of any of my wedding packages.

I can’t wait to hear from you!

morganwernerphotography.com
maddybirdmakeup.com
lovelysparrowhairco.blogspot.com

Zumba, fortune cookies, and Soldiers

2010-01-13T09:25:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we went running. Or jogging, I should say. I'm really terrible at it, and I hate it. I don't feel good during the jog, I don't feel that great afterward, and I can't motivate myself to go when Brett's not home to drag me out to the trail. I know it's good for me, and I know I need the exercise, but I'd so much rather be dancing or doing aerobics for that exercise. That's why I love zumba! Except that I never get down to the gym to go to the Zumba classes. I could have gone yesterday morning, BUT I didn't. Oh well. Next week, I'm back on the bandwagon!

After we got back to the apartment, I went to the kitchen for a glass of water. I noticed something on my fridge: two fortune cookie fortunes stuck to the fridge with a magnet clip. I don't remember when or where we got these fortune cookies, but I do remember thinking about how relevant their messages were and still are to our life. The top fortune can be useful wisdom to anyone trying to get a business off the ground, or just trying to accomplish any goal. The second fortune is a promise that I think is dependant upon heedance (heedance - did I just make up that word?) to the first one. I'm going to take this advice to heart and look at these fortunes whenever I feel like I need a little pick me up, a little encouragement, as I go through the ups and downs of starting a business. This is what they said:

In other news, our country is gaining another amazing hero. He's a husband, father, brother and son. His name is Dan, and he's joining the Army and joining the ranks of some of the best people in our country. Here he is with his wife, his son, daughter, parents, sisters, brother-in-law, and neice. Good luck at basic training, Dan! Thank you for defending and protecting me, my family, and my country. I know your family is all so proud of you, and I am so thankful for you.

New Leaves

2010-01-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

Can I just say that I am SO excited about 2010?! I have so many plans and goals for this year. There will be some big changes in my family and personal life, and in my business. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same old story,” you say. But it’s true! I’ve set some very serious goals for myself and pretty much set the game plan for accomplishing them. By the way, I don’t like to call them New Years Resolutions. That is just so cliché. I’m going to call them goals. I forget about my resolutions by February, but I won’t forget about my goals all year long! One of these goals is to blog more, so here I am! I used to only blog about my shoots, and even then I’d write something small and then post a million pictures. From now on, I’m going to be putting a lot more of myself out there in Blogland so that my readers can get to know me a little better. I might even get rid of my family/personal blog, but we’ll see how brave I get with blogging some of the personal stuff that I might put on our family blog on my photography blog.

I am in the midst of some changes to my business as we speak. I’m building a new website to have along with my blog. I’m also planning a whole new blog. This year has some really big, fun projects planned. I’ll be working with some really great models, a really great makeup artist, and an amazing hair stylist. Just you wait – we are so excited to show you what we’ve been planning!

So, here are some of my Goals for 2010. Some are personal goals, some are photography/business goals, and some I’m not even bothering to mention i.e. exercise more, eat better, get out of debt, bla bla bla...

- Be done “working” by December: I am determined to get my business running to the point where I don’t need to work my two “real” jobs anymore. This will enable me to be a stay-at-home-mama by the time I have a baby.

- Go on a “real” vacation with Brett: We’ve been married for almost three years now, and we really need a big, fat, get outta the country vacation. And we aren’t talkin’ about a little cruise, folks. This will be a big, huge, exotic vacation. I’d really like to go to a Sandals resort in the Caribbean, but something in Bora Bora would also suffice, I guess, hehe… I don’t want to go somewhere where we’ll have things that we’ll have to see while we’re there. There will be no itinerary besides, “Day 1-10: Sit on the beach, eat lots of food, do nothing.” This is something that we want/need to do before we have kids, so, this has to be the year!

- Brett’s wonderful mom, Judy, taught me how to knit last year and I have fallen in love with it! I would like to finish at least knitting project each month in 2010. I’ll be sure to include lots of pictures of these projects!

- Take classical voice lessons. All the Christmas music that I heard at church last month really inspired me to develop a talent in music, and I’d like to learn how to sing. Good thing I can’t take pictures of sound.

- Shoot at least 12 weddings this year! 2009 was just a practice year for me, and I have some big plans for 2010 as far as my weddings are concerned. Watch for those!

- I’m going to blog at least twice a week, if not more. Right now, I have three followers on my Blogger dashboard, and I’d really like to change this. It needs to be more like 300 followers. I’ve already made myself a list of lots of things I can blog about, so be prepared for some ramblings!

- Learn more about photography and Photoshop. I haven’t taken any photography classes since high school, so I’m going to delve into some classes at Monterey Peninsula College and see what they know. I’d also like to go to some workshops and meet with other photographers in the industry. Sometimes I feel all alone out here in Monterey and I need some photog buddies!

- I’d love to try a 365 Project, but I just don’t see myself following through with that. Instead, I’m going to try a 52 Project. This will force me to take more pictures of our life. It’s really sad, I’m a photographer, yet I hardly take any pictures of our life. Granted, there hasn’t been much to take pictures of; until now, life consisted of us working day in and day out. But, this will change. Brett will lose all camera-shy tendencies, mwahahahaha!

So, there ya have it! This is my game plan for 2010. I hope you are all with me along the way, out there in Blogland. I’ll need the support and reassurance!

Since a blog post is lame without a picture, here’s a cutie for you. She answers to "Sassy Girl."

Monterey Family Photographer | P-Fam Portraits

2009-12-10T10:19:00.000-08:00

Oh my friends, I have so much to tell you about! I've got some big changes that I want to blab to you. I'm building a new website complete with slideshows, proofing galleries, all the bells and whistles. Next on the makeover list is this here ricketty blog. I'm making some other changes to my business and brand, but that's a story for the road. ;-)

Ok, enough messin' around. I wanna talk about this wonderful family! One of my favorite things about them is the chubby cheeks on the little ones. Oh. My. Gosh. They're just so cute! The oldest girl was excited to tell me her life story - she's seven. The middle girl, 3, was just so gracious when I took her pictures. In the beginning she was patient with me, smiling and saying "Cheese! Cheezits!" But toward the end, when she was just about over sitting pretty, she was trying to be polite by still saying "cheese" and "cheezits," but with a very frustrated tone to her voice. She was crackin' me up! The mama is a dance teacher, massage therapist, and yoga instructor, and the papa works at an outdoorsy store. And check out that baby! She is just a perfect little bug with perfect little chub. What more could you ask for? Thank you, P-Fam, for being so fun and EASY to shoot and following me all the way up to that barn!

Monterey Family Photographer | Ewing sneak peak

2009-12-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

Just a little somethin somethin to hold you over for a day or two...

Monterey Beach Family Photographer | G-fam portraits

2009-12-05T00:38:00.000-08:00

Here’s the d.l.: The Boy loves Star Wars and the Girl loves Barbies. The Mom does hair (MY hair!) and the Dad is a soldier. They couldn’t be any more perfect. Or photogenic, for that matter. When I pointed my camera at the Girl, she put her hands on her hips and did a funny little dance for me. In fact, she did almost everything with her hands on her hips. The Mom says that the Girl learns this in ballet class.

The Boy was having none of this ridiculous picture business. Nothing was amusing him. So I tried telling him that his Mom was picking her nose. This still didn’t even crack a smile. The breaking point was when the Dad tickled the Boy – or hung him upside down by his ankle – whichever was needed. When I asked the Mom and Dad to be romantic and mushy, I should have been more prepared, because they really poured on the sugar! What’s more romantic than a soldier and his beautiful wife kissing on the beach?
Behold:

{Wendy Lady}

2009-09-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Suzie

2009-09-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

She needs no introduction.

Could they be any cuter?

2009-09-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing catchup on my blogging, and here is the second of many shoots that I did this summer. I had so much fun with Nate and Susanne and their cutie-pies out at Carmel Beach. The kids were such little balls of energy from the second they got out of the car, talking to me a mile a minute. And hello, can I have that baby please? I'd really like to have a baby girl as pretty as her. Thanks.

Lara and Jerry

2009-09-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have worked the bugs out of my blog. Now, with no further adieu, I present to you Lara and Jerry!

I have so much to show you...

2009-08-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

...but something's wrong with my blog. It won't let me post pictures. Sadness fills my heart. Give me a couple seconds and I'll get it up and running.

Zettels Take 2

2009-07-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

As promised, part two of this shoot. Look how big little Elle got! She's so delightfully chubby and I love it. Not to mention, look at those baby blues glow for my camera. I sure hope my babies have eyes and chub like that. Good-lookin' family; nice work, Zettels!

One shoot down, three to go! Stay tuned!

What I've been up to the last few weeks

2009-07-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

A gorgeous wedding:

Some fun-loving best friends:

And a darling little family:

Broken computers suck!

2009-07-03T09:46:00.000-07:00

My computer is in the shop right now, and will be for probably another week and a half. I am writing this on my husband's PS3, which is hooked up to the internet. Last night, he found a keyboard and plugged it in to the PS3.

The worst part of this is that I have three shoots that I can't even touch until I get my computer back. I have a wedding and two family portrait sessions to show you, so stay tuned! And please, say a little prayer for my computer so that it can return safely and swiftly. Thanks.

See ya in a couple weeks!

Sisters Forever

2009-06-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Blogstalkers/friends, meet Sarah and Leah. Sarah and Leah, meet my blogstalkers/friends. Sarah is going away to college in another town, and their mama wanted to get some pictures of the two girls while they were both still teenagers (Sarah is turning 20 soon). I had the pleasure of getting a few shots of them having fun on Carmel Beach. They were so sweet to each other, (totally the opposite of my sister and I. We are always poking each other and calling each other absurd names in other languages. Don't judge us. Haha.) And I could tell that with a six-year age difference, Sarah is very loving and protective of her little sister. And, can you say GORGEOUS girls? Hello! Photoshop was practially unecessary for this shoot aside from a little color correction and some special effects. It was a gorgeous day and these girls were naturals, making my job much easier. Darcie, you are a very lucky mama!

Sarah and Leah, please stay in touch! I want to do this again sometime! :-)

Behold:

Three Brothers Wilfley

2009-05-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

When I was home in Sacramento for about five minutes, I took my brothers out and put them in front of my camera. This is what I came up with. I was having a lot of fun with the black and white processing, if you can't tell.

Gosh dang it, can my brothers be any uglier? They practically broke my camera with their ugliness. NOT.

{Pardon my dust...}

2009-05-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

As you can probably see, I've been a bit indicisive about the design of my blog. I couldn't decide between a black or white background, or a header, but I knew I liked the blue... I think I've come upon a layout that I like - for now. I might change my mind once I get my real website up and running. Speaking of my website, it is growing and evolving every day! I'm REALLY excited about the new website and I hope to have it go live within the next couple of months if all goes as planned. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Introducing Paige {Alert - Photo Overload!}

2009-04-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

Paige is graduating from college next month and moving on to her graduate studies in the fall. We set out for some decent portraits for her mom, but I got so many great shots of her that I couldn't decide which few to post. I am just so pleased with these pictures - I had so many breakthroughs with learning the abyss that is my camera and Photoshop!

So, here are about 1k of my favorite images from that day. We were really lucky with the PERFECT weather and light, and some really great locations. The side-lit head shots were taken inside the abandoned army barracks here at Fort Ord (kinda creepy, but just go in the daytime and you'll be safe from the ghosts). The grafitti shots were in the abandoned, Olympic-size (we think) pool building in Fort Ord. She was standing at the bottom of the deep end in those grunge/junk pile pictures. And man oh man, do I love living near the beach - it's such a great outdoor studio!

Just cuz I can't wait

2009-04-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

My favorite nephew

2009-04-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we got to visit Brett's sister and brother-in-law, and their darling kids for a few days. While everyone else was out moving boxes around between an old house and a new house, Kaden and I were playing spy kids in the AWESOME new back yard. This is what Kaden looks like when he's a spy. Just so you know, the pictures where he's lying on the ground - yeah, that's him "passed out" after an invisible bad guy whacked him. Apparently, cute five-year-olds smile with their eyes open when they're passed out. Love this kid! He's such a blast!

Z-Man and his TWO ladies!

2009-04-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

You might remember this couple from last summer. Well, what you all didn't know was that she was a few months pregnant when we took those pictures! They had a baby girl in February, and it was time for some updated family pictures.

Here are a few from Part 1 of their shoot. More to come in a few weeks...

Test Post - New Layout

2009-04-13T01:34:00.001-07:00

Testing testing 123

Just for starters

2009-03-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

My new muse.

Something AWESOME this way comes..

2009-03-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Stay tuned for more of this chick:

News Flash! Now offering prints!

2009-02-13T09:28:00.001-08:00

I am very excited to announce that I can now do prints. I'm finally all set up with a professional printing lab and I am ready to roll! I can also do all kinds of other cool things like canvas prints or wraps, standouts, matboard prints, and even albums!

If I've done a shoot with you in the past year, and you'd like to have some prints made - and NOT at lame WalMart - drop me a line and I'll email you the price list!

Oh, how I love dangling small children by their ankles

2009-01-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

I swear, I'm not a freak! But one thing is true and NOT weird - which is that I love this family! I've known Chad since we were kids, and I've known Steph since we were in high school, since she is the cousin of one of the girls that Chad and I grew up with. I like to take credit for them getting together, but that's another story. ;-)

As usual, makeup courtesy of Makeup by Maddy.

A few of my new favorite photos (as of the current five minute period)

2009-01-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

Stay tuned for the French Fam!

At Last!

2009-01-03T20:37:00.000-08:00

Mia and Josh got married! You might remember them from this shoot last fall. Mia looked SO beautiful, and Josh cleans up pretty well himself ;-). Can you believe that Mia's mom made that fabulous, one-of-a-kind dress? As usual for my shoots, Mia's makeup looked outstanding compliments of Maddy Wilfley.

I was ecstatic to shoot this wedding. Thank you, Culps! Welcome to the married world!

P.S. When I upload the pictures onto Blogger, the color is somewhat muted, and some of the vibrance is lost, at least on my monitor. Please keep that in mind when checking out this post. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the pictures to be true to color on the www. Thanks!

Coming soon...

2009-01-02T18:54:00.001-08:00

Sahily

2008-12-25T18:01:00.000-08:00

Sahily and Maddy, my sister, came to visit me back in October. Maddy and I have this problem where we feel the need to ambush cute friends of ours with makeup and outfits and then make them pose in front of my camera. We call it "impromptu makeup experimentation and photo shoot syndrome." We've thought about seeking treatment, but decided that our condition isn't hurting anybody. It really only results in blog posts and new facebook pictures for the model.

So, anyway, there is a really grizzled pedestrian overpass right in front of our apartment, and similarly grizzled, decommissioned train tracks that run right along our street between our apartment and the sidewalk. If you are a photographer, you know how irresistible train tracks are (especially when there's no one to tell you that they've had to pick up heads off the tracks).

Without further adieu, I present to you, Sahily:

Sister.

2008-12-24T08:03:00.000-08:00

I need everybody's help!

2008-10-19T17:37:00.001-07:00

Those of you who know me pretty well know how indecisive I can be. I'm going to enter a portrait photography contest, and I'm trying to decide which of these photos to enter. There aren't many rules to the contest other than the photos have to be portraits. Pretty easy, right? Think again! I hate making decisions when I have a thousand choices!

I have added a poll to the right side of my blog for everybody to vote and help me decide. Here are the three choices:

Lissy 1:

Lissy 2:

Sahily:

News Flash!

2008-10-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited today, because I'm shooting my favorite couple's wedding in two hours! Woohoo!!! Keep your eyes peeled for their wedding pictures!

Two of my FAVORITE cousins

2008-09-17T23:16:00.000-07:00

Remember how I called Mia my "stunt double?" Well, Sarah is my mini-me! Although, she's not so mini anymore. She's getting so old and teenagery, it's breaking my heart! She's big into Polyvore.come, so we wanted to do some pictures that were similar to the style of photos that are seen on that site.

Macey has this wild, hammy personality, which made it SO easy to photograph her. She is the kind of girl who does at least three "costume changes" when I'm at her house, talking to my aunt and uncle. She had so many cute poses and props that I was going hog-wild taking pictures! Just watch out- she knows pressure points and uses them in answer to any teasing or tickling...

And MAN, do I love shooting in Old Sac! I could probably find a new nook or cranny every day. I just can't get enough!

2008-09-13T00:16:00.001-07:00

I cannot WAIT to post these two shoots. I know I've done previews before, but I'm not quite ready to do the whole posts, and I'm really excited about what I've got so far.

Lissy...

Sarah and Macey...

Z-Man and his lady

2008-09-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

If Mia and Josh weren't stunning enough of a couple for you, scroll your little mousey-mouse down a tad and take a gander at these two! Perhaps they will tickle your fancy. They are Chris and Laura, friends of mine and Brett's. We love them, and I loved taking pictures of them! They're one of those couples that are just goofy enough to lighten a somber mood. Zingers galore!

Morgan loves Mia and Josh!

2008-09-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

My favorite stunt double is getting married next month! Here are a few of my favorites of their engagement session. Stay tuned for the wedding pictures.

A Preview

2008-08-21T15:59:00.001-07:00

Mia and Josh...

Sarah and Macey...

Lissy and Kayla...

Chris and Laura ...

Kersina and Ryan are Engaged!

2008-08-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of taking Kersina and Ryan's engagement pictures. Boy, oh boy, are these two in love! They were so fun to work with. What a couple of hams! As always, Makeup by Maddy.

Brittany and Shawn

2008-08-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

Finally, here they are! These are only a few of what I've got. More to come! Fabulous makeup, yet again, compliments of Makeup By Maddy.

I'm a slacker, I know...

2008-07-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

I know I'm way behind. I have three, and almost 4 shoots that I'm processing. Hang tight! I'll start posting them soon!

A few more of Richelle and Cole

2008-07-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more that I have finished.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

2008-07-06T02:06:00.000-07:00

Well, at least a couple people I know have been waiting for this shoot...

Richelle grew up in our stake, and her brothers are best friends with my brother. She was also Maddy's roommate at beauty school. Richelle and her husband, Cole, were in town from Provo this week. We had so much fun on this shoot. Richelle and Cole were so great in front of the camera. They posed themselves a lot, which was awesome, and they really hammed it up! Props to them for not being embarrassed to kiss for the camera on command! Turns out that their first anniversary is in a couple of weeks, so it was a perfect time for them to get some updated portraits done!

Here are just a few of the 300-something pictures we took. So many frames were fabulous, I'm having trouble working on just one at a time!

Ladies and gentleman, take notes. This is what it looks like to be newlyweds and in love.

Check out this woman's skin! One word: PORCELAIN! I did not have to photoshop a single thing on her face! Well, in a couple pictures I burned in a couple of freckles on her cheek just because I liked them, but not a single flaw to spot treat!

These shoots just keep getting better and better! It helps that with every shoot I learn more about my camera and PS. I'm truly falling in love with this hobby. The more I learn, the more I love photography. I don't know why I ever let go of it for so many years!

Thank you, my sweet husband, for letting me bend the rules a little so that I could get this camera. You don't know how good it feels to be producing something worthwhile after my long shifts at the office and my lame shifts at the restaurant. It is keeping me sane. XOXO

Just A Teaser...

2008-07-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

A sample of a post to come.

The Many Moods of Maddy

2008-06-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have finished processing some pictures of my fabulous sister, Maddy. Last week, we decided to go out and play with my camera a bit. I needed a model, and Maddy is always willing to pose for me!

We were having some fun with it. All I had to do to get her to smile and laugh more naturally was poke myself in the boob. Can I say that on my blog? Whatever, it's my blog. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Many Moods of Maddy!

Man, even when she's making dorky faces, she STILL looks good!

On a more serious note...

I love love LOVE this one:

Should I vignette it? I kinda want to but I'm not sure. I tend to want to vignette every photo I process and I don't want to over-do it.

Yup, that's right. That's a boob-poker shot. The sacrifices we make for art.

That's all for now, folks. I have a couple of shoots coming up that I'm pretty excited about, so stay tuned for another installment of the saga that is "Morgan Werner Photography."

Photoshoot #2...

2008-06-23T20:55:00.000-07:00

The same week as my Kayla and Meghan Young shoot, I had the pleasure of taking some pictures of Chelsea, Lisa, and another Kayla! They are friends of my brother's, and Maddy wanted to experiment with makeup on them. She went for a more natural, youthful look on them, with a hint of shimmer. They looked beautiful, and the pictures turned out gorgeous!

We went down to the Folsom Power House for the shoot. I know it's a popular spot for photographers, but I really liked it there. There are so many different shapes and textures there, and I had a lot of fun with it. We even found some cute little sk8r bois who were willing to stand in front of my camera and add a little variety to the shoot.

A couple of these are works in progress, but I wanted to show them off anyway! I'm really pleased with them so far. Check it out! Let me know what you think!

I Don't Even Know Where to Start...

2008-06-21T01:56:00.000-07:00

I finally got my D80 a couple of weeks ago, and I've done some fun stuff with it already! The day I bought it, I zipped right over to Ritz camera and took it straight over to the Young-Magby residence. Meg was only going to be in town from Germany for a couple more days, and we wanted to get a shoot in with her and Kayla. While Maddy worked on their makeup, I took my camera out of the original packaging and charged the battery for only about ten minutes so that we could go catch what daylight we had left. Before we left, I broke in my camera on Meg's kids, Grace and Seth, who were having the time of their lives in the sprinklers and mud. The following results are what we call beginner's luck combined with Photoshop magic.

When the girls' makeup was finished, we packed up and headed up to Roseville to meet this lovely lady, Sarah, at some train tracks so she could co-shoot for me. By the end of the night she had put down her camera and I was taking pictures of her instead (I had bogarted her speedlight anyway, hehe... Oooooh boy do I have a lot of equipment to start accumulating. It kinda stresses me out.)

When we got to the rail yard, we didn't get many pictures before three separate officials kicked us off. Apparently it's a felony to "play on the tracks." There were no signs saying so, so how were we supposed to know? One guy who told us to scram "has had to pick up heads before, and it's not pretty!" Apparently deaf/blind people with reeeeeeeeallly delayed reflexes play on the train tracks often. Whatever. We finally found a good spot for shots up in Lincoln, and that's where we were for the rest of the night.

I can't decide if I like this one better in color or B&W...

This shoot wasn't super difficult, considering the subjects of the project. Meghan and Kayla both have perfect skin and beautiful eyes, so there wasn't much touch-up work for me to do on them. I mostly had some fun playing with contrast and color a bit.

Credit belongs to my sister, Maddy, who did the makeup for this shoot. She is very talented, and is starting her career in professional makeup. She is also sooo stinking photogenic, it makes me sick. This is just a candid from that night.

More to come... It's 1AM and I have work in the morning. Blegh.